We have launched a crowdfunding campaign to help us cover the costs of our upcoming festival so that we can focus on using our proceeds from our ticket sales on supporting the artists participating in this festival, all of whom are unfunded and have had to pay for all the costs incurred in creating and/or preparing their works for our festival.

Cloud Dance Festival has never been funded, instead using our ticket sales and a nominal participation fee to cover as much of our costs as possible - which have increased steadily over the years, as our production costs have increased in direct proportion to our production values. We want to make contemporary dance and ballet accessible to new audiences, and to people who wouldn't normally consider watching dance - and for that reason, and for the companies' benefit, we want to ensure that their works look as good as we can accomplish.

As the funding cuts are biting, it is becoming harder and harder for unfunded contemporary dance artists to be able to create new work, and if they're not creating work, then they're not developing or progressing as artists. Cloud Dance Festival is an important stepping stone in many artists' careers - with most of our past participants now enjoying varying degrees of success - and so it is all the more important for us to be in a position to assist them with the financial side of their creative process.

With your help, we can help cover the travel costs for artists based outside London, or rehearsal costs, or even award prizes and commission new works. You can visit our crowdfunding campaign at www.indiegogo.com/projects/cloud-dance-festival-lacuna, and we will be very grateful for any and all support which you can offer.